noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Systematic collection of non-Muslim boys or young men from rural Christian populations of the Balkans, practiced by Ottomans; the boys were taken to Istanbul, converted to Islam and educated for military profession or religious disciplines. historical, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

blood tax

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish دیوشیرمه (devşirme, literally “collection, gathering”) (Turkish devşirme).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.